Miss Lisbon
by Penelope Louise
Summary: An insight into Lisbon's past.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Okay, so this is kinda a character study of Lisbon's past. Enjoy…**_

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A family. A mother. A father. Two sons. A daughter.

Once a family.

1976. May the 17th. A baby girl was born, weighing six pounds seven ounces, to two very proud parents.

Teresa Mae Lisbon.

Two years later, on the thirtieth of November, their second child was born. He was christened Alan Fitzgerald Lisbon.

Another three years later, nature brought five year old Teresa and two year old Alan a baby brother. Charles Julian Lisbon was born on the fifth of August, weighing a scarily light 3 pounds seven ounces.

Teresa Lisbon was the apple of her mother's eyes. Her pride and joy. The more talented one of the family, by six Teresa was playing the flute and the piano, and going to ballet, drama and singing classes.

"_Tessa!" Teresa turned at the sound of her mother's voice. She jumped up from the piano stool, glanced apologetically at Alan who she'd been __playing to and ran downstairs._

"_Yes, mommy?" Alice Lisbon tousled her daughter's hair affectionately._

"_I'm going out shopping with grandma, would you like to come?" She asked, and Teresa sighed._

"_But, mommy. I'm busy." She pouted, and Alice shrugged._

"_Okay, then, honey. I'll see you in a few hours." Alice pulled on her coat and headed outside to her car._

"_Bye mommy!" Teresa ran back upstairs to carry on playing the piano. _

_The next morning she walked into the kitchen to find her parents in deep conversation. __Her mom was crying, and her father looked sad._

"_Daddy? Why is mommy crying?" Teresa looked up at her father, who shook his head slightly and pulled Teresa onto his knee._

"_Grandma is very ill, honey." He said, speaking to her slowly. "She might not get better."_

"_What's wrong with her?" Teresa asked, her lower lip trembling slightly._

"_She's very, very tired. Tess, she's gone to sleep and the doctors can't wake her up at the moment. She might wake up… we're not sure." Lucien Lisbon replied sadly. Alice's mother was in a coma, as a result of a stroke she had suffered two nights before. Alice had been the one to find her, on the floor of her own home, with no one to help her._

"_I'm going to the hospital this afternoon, Tessa. Would you like to come?" Alice bit her lip so she wouldn't cry in front of her daughter._

"_Are Alan and Charlie coming?" Alice glanced at her husband. _

"_Alan can come if he wants to." Alice conceded. Teresa ran up the stairs to tell her brother. A few minutes later, brother and sister came running down the stairs._

"_We're coming." Teresa stated. Alice found their coats and helped them put them on. _

"_Alan. Shoes." Lucien pointed out. Four year old Alan stomped back off upstairs to find himself a pair of shoes._

_Half an hour later, Teresa, Alan and Alice were sitting in uncomfortable blue plastic chairs next to the hospital bed containing the sleeping Elisabeth Levato. Alice held her mother's hand in her own, her cheeks damp from tears. Teresa had her legs pulled up under herself on the chair, and Alan's head was resting on her shoulder, his eyes closed._

_Alice took a deep breath and turned away from her mother. "Children, we should be going." She said, and it took a superhuman effort for her to keep her voice steady. "Kiss your grandma goodbye."_

"_Bye nana." Alan leaned over and kissed his grandmother's cheek._

"_Teresa? Aren't you going to kiss your grandmother goodbye?" Alice asked her eldest daughter. _

"_I…" Teresa wiped a tear away from her eye. Her grandmother looked so peaceful and serene, yet the sleeping face would haunt her. She didn't want to kiss her cheek, so she settled for patting her hand lightly. "Good bye, nana."_

_That was the last time that Teresa saw her grandmother. The next time her mother visited Elisabeth, Teresa opted to stay at home. _

_After that, there was no next time. All that was left of Elisabeth Levato was a granite headstone and the memories in their heads._

Whenever Teresa Lisbon thought of her grandmother, she saw the face wrinkled with illness and worry, the mouth straight with no emotion, and she heard the sounds of hospital machines beeping.

She would never forgive herself from being unable to say goodbye to her grandmother properly.

Soon, Teresa Lisbon became top of her class in her school, competing against Kevin, the geeky son of the school's computer technology teacher. One thing she managed to excel far over Kevin in was sport.

"_Mommy. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up." Seven year old Teresa informed her mother on the way home from school one day._

"_Why's that?" Her mother asked, interestedly._

"_Lilly's mom is a lawyer, and she helps bring jus… jus… justice to bad people." Teresa said proudly._

"_So, you want to make the world a better place?" Alice smiled proudly at her daughter's words._

"_Everyone should." Teresa said knowingly and Alice wondered when her daughter had suddenly become such a philosopher. _

"_When we get home, tell daddy what job you want to do." Alice told Teresa, knowing how proud it would make Lucien to have such a promising daughter._

Ballet was something that her father didn't care much about. All of her recitals, he never came to one of them. It was always her mother who came to support her. Sometimes her brothers came to watch her, but they usually got bored before the end.

_Alice looked on proudly as her daughter danced her small solo, the angel in the Christmas dance recital. _

"_Mommy, why does Teresa do dancing and I don't?" Four year old Alan complained, and Alice suppressed a smile._

"_You play soccer, Tessa dances." Alice explained. Alan sighed. "Now, shh."_

_Half an hour later, Teresa stepped down from the stage after curtseying with the rest of her class, and ran up to her mother and brother. _

"_You were excellent, Tessa." Her mother praised, and Teresa visibly glowed._

"_You were good." Teresa took it as a huge compliment from her younger brother._

When Teresa was eight, her whole world came crashing down around her.

"_Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Tessa, happy birthday to you." Alice sang as she brought in a cake embellished with eight candles. Teresa took a deep breath and blew them all out. Lucien and Alan clapped, while Charlie looked up at the cake in the awe of a three year old seeing a whole load of sugar._

"_Can I open my presents now?" Teresa asked, and her mom nodded._

"_Sure honey." She pointed to a pile of neatly wrapped presents on the floor near the television. Teresa sat herself down beside the small pile, and picked one at random._

"_From Charlie." She read the tag. _

"_That's mine!" Charlie sat down next to Teresa. She unwrapped it carefully, trying not to rip the wrapping paper too much. Inside was a necklace and a bracelet._

"_Oh! Thank you Charlie!" She hugged her little brother, who grinned widely._

_She opened the rest of her presents, and was slightly sad to find that, yet again, there was no surprise of a pony. _

A few months later, disaster happened.

"_Mommy! I left my coat at Lilly's house!" Teresa exclaimed when they got home from a sleepover at her best friend's house._

"_She can bring it to school." Alice said but Teresa pouted._

"_Mommy! I need it!" She complained, and Alice sighed._

"_Fine. I'll go back and get it. But by the time I get back, I want your room tidy." Alice picked the car keys back up from where she'd just put them._

"_Fine, mommy." Teresa huffed and headed upstairs._

_Half an hour later they received a phone call._

_The roads had been slick with rain, and she'd had no chance of survival._

_Her mother was dead. Her car had been hit side on by a drunk driver speeding at seventy miles per hour. She was killed on the impact. She suffered no pain. _

One of the worse things was that the other driver lived.

In her will, it instructed that Teresa was to receive the silver cross on a chain that Alice always wore.

Ironic, really.

The sign of Christianity was to go to the girl who had lost her faith in god.

After all, what sick minded god would kill her mother, innocent and faithful, and yet the person in the wrong survived?

In all her philosophical musings, eight year old Teresa Lisbon never could work it out.

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_**A/N: So? What did you think? Please review!**_

_**PS: Nothing is meant to be vulgar to any religion. **_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Thanks for all your reviews on the first chapter! I hope you enjoy this one, excellently beta'd by the awesome **__tromana._

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By the time Teresa Lisbon reached age thirteen, she was cooking most of the meals, helping her brothers with their homework, and was working off the books at her local supermarket, stacking shelves. Luckily she knew the owner, and had managed to convince them that she would be a reliable worker.

Her father wasn't working anymore, he'd been signed off sick several months ago and the income they had was from benefits and Teresa's job. Once she reached thirteen, she was legally allowed to work and moved to manning one of the tills, which brought in a little more money than before.

Still, it wasn't enough.

The Lisbon family moved into a smaller house and a public school, as they couldn't afford the upkeep of their home and the school fees. Once Teresa reached thirteen, she applied for a scholarship to a private college, and along with the bursary she could afford to carry on with her schooling.

Every week, she ensured she put away five dollars into each of her brother's trust funds, so that they would have their own money when they were older. Her father used any money he got, including the majority of the benefits, to pay for more alcohol. She couldn't do anything about it. Most of the time when she got home from school or work, he'd be flat out on the couch, with a pile of sick on the floor near his head. She'd clear it up, not the most pleasant of jobs, so that when she picked up Alan and Charlie from school they would just see their father asleep. She knew they were both aware of their father's alcoholism, but it didn't stop her wanting to hide it.

"_Tess, can I go get an ice cream?" Alan asked one day when she was walking them home from school. Teresa pulled her purse from her pocket and looked in it. Four dollars and thirty two cents. And that was meant to last them for the next week. _

"_I don't have the money, Al," she said apologetically. _

"_But Tess!" Alan whined, and Teresa was hurt at the fact that she couldn't do anything about it. "You never get us anything!" _

"_I can't afford everything you want," she replied calmly, but her fingers were playing with the frayed pocket of her jeans. _

"_Mom would have bought me an ice cream!" Alan yelled, and ran off. _

"_Alan! Alan!" Teresa shouted after him, "Alan! Come back!" _

_She put her head in her hands, tears running down her cheeks. She felt Charlie hug her around the waist. _

"_He didn't mean it, Tessie," Charlie told her, always the calm one. Teresa wiped away her tears, and tousled Charlie's hair affectionately. He took her hand and they carried on walking home. She could only hope that that was where Alan was headed, too. _

_By the time they reached home, Alan was already there, thankfully, sitting on the front step. He was enthusiastically licking at an ice cream. _

"_Where did you get that?" Teresa asked interestedly. _

"_From the ice cream van," Alan replied stonily. _

"_Where did you get the money?" Teresa questioned him and he glared at her._

"_From Janet."_

_He was referring to the elderly woman who lived next door to them. Teresa looked over the fence, and saw Janet watering her geraniums. She was a nice woman and a generous neighbor. There had been occasions when she had looked after the boys whilst Teresa struggled with the upkeep of the family home. _

"_Janet?" she shouted and got the old woman's attention. _

"_Yes, dear?" Janet walked over and leaned on the fence. _

"_Did you give Alan the money for an ice cream?" Teresa wanted to check that Alan had been telling the truth. _

"_Yes, I did. I'm sorry, shouldn't I have?" Janet looked worried, and Teresa smiled. _

"_That's very, very kind of you. Thank you." For some reason, tears pricked at her eyes at the fact that Janet would just give Alan the money. "Oh, and Janet?"_

"_Yes?" Janet looked at her quizzically. _

"_Do you need two boys to help with your gardening or anything at the weekends?" Teresa had thought of a way that her brothers could earn their own money. _

"_That'd be lovely. I would love to have them over here," Janet smiled at her warmly, and looked at the two boys. "You just knock on my door when you want to help."_

_Janet turned back to her gardening, and Teresa unlocked the front door and ushered Charlie and Alan in. _

"_Do we have to help her?" Alan complained, and it took all of her willpower not to hit him. _

"_You need to start earning some of your own money, Alan. I can't pay for everything around here." Teresa thought back to when she had last gone shopping for herself, at the end of the holidays. She'd had to buy herself new stationary for the upcoming school year. That had been eight months ago. She hadn't bought any clothes for herself in over two years. Instead, she used her mother's old sewing machine to adjust her old clothes, as well as her mother's clothes that would otherwise just hang in the wardrobe, gathering dust. _

She didn't have a party for her ninth birthday. Or her tenth. Nor for her eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth. Her birthdays simply weren't important anymore.

She made sure that she saved up enough money to buy a cake, or at the very least, ingredients to make one, and have a small party for her brother's birthdays. She knew that Charlie wouldn't mind so much if he didn't have a party, as it was he only invited his three closest friends anyway. Lisbon almost felt like she was a surrogate mother to Lisa, Jamie and Georg now. As well as to Charlie and Alan.

She wasn't their sister anymore. She hadn't been for years.

She had to quit ballet after her mother's death. Dance classes cost money, after all. She'd practiced the steps in her bedroom, but she hadn't been back to her class, though eventually she simply did not have the time to do so. She had cancelled her piano and flute lessons. She had ended her singing lessons. She had to forget about her drama classes, too.

She always practiced playing the piano and her flute, though. She dreaded the day that she would have to sell the piano. She would have to sometime, she knew that. The piano was the only thing the family had left of value, now.

_Her fingers danced across the keys, and she felt a slight waft of cool air as someone opened the door. She finished the piece and turned around. _

"_What was that?" Charlie asked her. _

"_Für Elise, by Beethoven," she informed him. She could play the whole piece without the music. It had been her mother's favorite piece on the piano, and Teresa had vowed that she would make it as perfect as possible. For her mother. _

"_It's pretty," Charlie replied as he sat next to her on the piano stool. "Can you teach me it?" _

From then on, Teresa would teach Charlie how to play the piano. Though she couldn't spend as much time on them as she liked, she understood the importance of extra-curricular activities. Her teaching him was cheaper than hiring a teacher. Like her, he seemed to have a natural talent, and was soon playing in concerts at school.

"_Tessie?" Charlie knocked on her bedroom door. Teresa looked up from her math book. _

"_Come in," she said, and the door opened._

"_Tessie, Mr Langer asked me if we would play a flute and piano duet in the Christmas concert," Charlie reported, and Teresa smiled._

"_I'd love to. I'm taking you're playing the piano?" she grinned, Charlie couldn't play the flute, and they both knew it. She'd tried teaching him all of once and that had ended in disaster._

"_Of course, don't be silly Tessie. What can we play?" Charlie jumped onto her bed and sat down, his legs crossed. _

"_What about Clair de Lune?" Teresa suggested, and when Charlie's expression stayed blank, she picked up her flute and rattled off the first few bars. _

"_Oh! That one!" Charlie grinned. "Yeah. He says to talk to him at break time on Thursday." _

Teresa had grown further and further away from Alan, who seemed to have no respect for anyone or anything, and yet closer to Charlie. Alan had stopped helping out at Janet's, while Charlie diligently helped out every weekend.

"_Tess!" Alan hollered up the stairs. Teresa appeared on the landing._

"_Alan, don't shout," she admonished. _

"_Can I have some money? I want to go out with Simon and Alex," Alan asked, and Teresa ran down the stairs and checked her small safe. She had bought it after her father had taken all of the money out of her purse and spent it all on alcohol._

_She handed him a dollar. "It's all I have to spare," she said, and Alan glared at her._

"_You never give me anything!" he yelled at her, "you're always doing your own things, or playing duets with Charlie! You don't care about me! __**I hate you!**__"_

_He threw the dollar back at her and ran out of the house, the door slamming behind him. _

_Teresa collapsed into a chair, her head in her hands. 'What did I do wrong? What have I done?' she asked herself, despairingly. _

_Half an hour later, Janet came rushing around, terrified. She ushered the young girl around to her house, where a phone call had been waiting for her. Their telephone line had long since been cut off, so Janet had kindly offered Teresa the service of hers, free of charge. The electricity had been cut off one time too, when she hadn't had the money to pay for it for a couple of months. _

"_Hello?" she spoke into the receiver. _

"_Mr. Lisbon?" a female voice spoke. _

"_No, it's Teresa. Miss. Lisbon," she corrected the caller. _

"_I'm from the General Hospital. We have you brother here…" Teresa interrupted her. _

"_Alan? What's wrong? Is he okay?" she choked on the words. _

"_He's fine, apart from a broken leg. He was hit by a car," the receptionist told her, and silent tears flowed down Teresa's cheeks. _

'_He could have been killed… It's all my fault!'_

"_I'll get there as soon as I can," she ended the call, and yelled out for Charlie to get ready quickly. She found her bus card, and took some money from the safe. _

_They waited for the bus which stopped outside the hospital and travelled there in silence. It took them fifteen minutes to get to the hospital. For the entirety of the journey, she felt sick, and fraught with worry. _

"_I'm looking for Alan Lisbon?" Teresa spoke to the receptionist. _

"_Are you family, miss?" the receptionist asked her, and Teresa nodded. _

"_I'm his sister," she told her. "Where is he, please?" _

"_What about a legal guardian?" Lisbon froze. _

"_He's… unavailable right now."_

_She hoped that they wouldn't say that her father had to be there otherwise they wouldn't be able to discharge Alan. Because Lucien Lisbon was currently blacked out on the couch at home, rather indisposed and not in any condition to get his son home from the hospital. _

"_He's in ward 33," the receptionist smiled at her and Charlie, and directed them down the hall to the children's ward. Teresa hurried over to where Alan was. _

"_Al? Are you okay?" Her fingers brushed gently over a bruise on her head. _

"_No thanks to you," he answered grumpily. Lisbon looked away, praying that she wouldn't cry. No one answered her call. Tears slid down her cheeks, and she walked outside of the ward, and leaned against the wall. _

'_What did I do? Why me? Why is it my fault? I should be a better mother to them…' She stopped in her line of thought. 'What? I'm their sister! Not their mother! Why do __**I **__have to do all the work? What have I done wrong?'_

_Half an hour later, they were back at home. Alan was getting used to his crutches, and though he still wasn't very good on them yet. All the way home, Teresa had her hand on his back, just in case. _

"_I've got your back, Al," she'd promised him when they left the hospital. _

_To her surprise, when she unlocked the door, her father was awake. Not sober, mind you, but awake. _

_It was a start._

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A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! Please review!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: This is the last chapter, sorry! I will be writing a sequel, but I might not be able to start today as I leave on holiday to Cyprus tomorrow morning at five in the morning (GMT). Thank you!**_

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Christmas was the worst and the best time of year.

It was the worst because she had to save up to pay for Christmas dinner and the boys' presents, and give them an allowance so they could buy presents for their friends.

It was the best because her father usually sobered up for Christmas Day, even if he was out cold by Boxing Day.

She was sixteen, and finally able to get a proper job. She'd left school once she'd graduated a few months earlier, so she could work full time.

"_Christmas shopping time!" She shouted up the stairs, and moments later a small herd of elephants, known to others as Alan and Charlie Lisbon, came crashing down the stairs._

_She bought them bus tickets and they rode the bus to the mall. As always, their eyes widened at all the possible things to buy._

_Sighing, Teresa took them into Pound-Land to begin with. Charlie bought some small presents for his friends, ever the money saver. Alan tried to coerce her into buying an inflatable snowman. Needless to say, he didn't get far with his pleading._

_Once Charlie and Alan had bought their presents, she deposited them at a café in the centre of the mall, and went to buy presents for them. Every year, she tried to keep up the pretence of Santa, even if it was just a book and a piece of chocolate. _

_She bought a book that Charlie had been asking for, and for Alan she bought a gift token for a store that he liked to shop in. It would probably only buy one item of clothing, but it would have to do. When she got back, she saw Charlie and Alan with their heads together._

"_What are you two whispering about?" She asked, and they looked up, grinning._

"_Can we go and look at something?" Charlie asked. _

"_Sure." She smiled. They hurried off, and she wondered what they were going to do. _As long as they don't get into any trouble.

_Alan was fourteen and Charlie was eleven. Alan had got into the same school that Teresa had, again with a scholarship. Charlie had moved to a different school after her got a bursary to a better school._

_When the boys arrived back, they were carrying a bag. Both boys were grinning from ear to ear._

_"__What__'__s that?__"__ she asked them interestedly._

_"__Secret,__"__ Charlie told her, and handed over a few bills. __"__These are for you. Our contribution to Christmas.__"_

_They both beamed at her, and she was touched by the gesture._

"_Isn't this the money you made from helping Janet?" She asked Charlie._

"_She gave me extra; she said it was for Christmas." Charlie told her. _

"_Thank you, both of you." Teresa stood up, picking up the shopping bags that she had put by her feet. As they walked off to the bus stop, she noticed two girls from her class with bags full of shopping. She glanced down at the three plastic bags she was carrying, and back to the large paper and plastic bags __**they **__were carrying. She saw one of them point at her, and the other girl laughed. _

"_Hey, Teresa!" One of them called over. Her name was Alisha, or something._

"_Hi." She answered, and the other waved. They walked over._

"_Are these your brothers?" They asked, and Charlie shied away as one tried to pat his head. _

"_Yeah. Alan and Charlie." Teresa smiled, wary of why the girls were being so nice._

"_Nice meeting you." The other girl said. Lana, possibly?_

"_See you in September." Alisha smiled at Teresa._

"_I'm not coming back to school." Teresa corrected her, and Alisha looked surprised._

_"__Why not? You__'__re like__…__ some genius or something,__"__ Teresa smiled. She__'__d been the hard-working, good student. Nothing special. She__'__d had to work as hard as she could otherwise they might retract the scholarship._

_"__I__…__ I__…"__ What could she say? That she couldn__'__t afford to pay the college fees? Her scholarship ended this year. There was no way she could pay, not with Alan and Charlie eating them out of house and home. __"__I__'__m going to work.__"_

"_Oh…" Alisha shrugged slightly. "See you around, then."_

"_Bye." Teresa turned and the three Lisbons headed for the exit, leaving Alisha and Lana staring at their retreating backs._

"_What happened to her?" Lana asked, and Alisha shrugged._

"_Her parents never come to parent's evening." Alisha noted._

"_Her mom's dead. Don't you remember? She said when we were doing speeches. She did a speech about how drunk driving takes lives," Alisha sighed._

"_That's sad. What about her father?" _

"_No idea. I've seen her working at the supermarket; I guess she's the one that makes the money." Alisha glanced down at their shopping bags._

"_I wish I could help her…" _

"_Maybe… maybe, we can."_

Christmas Day dawned, cold and damp. By lunchtime, it was snowing, light fluffy snow that wasn't sticking to the ground. Teresa had spent most of the day in the kitchen, making the Christmas dinner. The night before, she'd stayed up late, wrapping presents and then putting presents in stocking for Charlie and Alan.

Alan had tried to tell her that Father Christmas didn't exist, but Charlie had told him off. Charlie had said, "if you don't think he exists, then you shouldn't get any presents from him." That had quietened Alan. No extra presents? No way.

Normally, by dinner her father was sober. This year, he was still drinking. She'd already received a slap across the face when she'd tried taking away the alcohol beside him. He was drunk out of his mind.

This year, it looked like it was just going to be her, Charlie and Alan.

_Teresa piled up the plates and took them into the kitchen. Charlie and Alan followed, and begun their Christmas duty of doing the washing up. _

"_Thanks, you two." She said gratefully. The door bell rung and she turned. "Let me get that."_

_She hurried over to the door and opened it. "Hello?"_

"_Hey Teresa!" It was Alisha and Lana. _

"_Oh. Hey!" Teresa pretended to look please that they'd come. _

"_We brought you something." Lana handed her a small parcel. _

"_Oh, thanks. I didn't get you guys anything…" She bit her lip, and they shrugged._

"_That's fine." Alisha smiled. "Open it."_

_Teresa opened the parcel. Inside were three cinema tickets, one adult and two children. Next to that was a card with a phone number on it._

"_Virgil Minelli?" She looked up at them quizzically._

"_He's my uncle," Alisha explained, "and I asked him about you going into work. He says that there's a job opening where he works. You'd have to do training obviously, but apparently it pays really well."_

"_Thank you…" Teresa broke into a smile and hugged them both. "Thank you so much."_

"_You're welcome. Anything to help." Alisha smiled, and turned away._

"_Hang on." Lana said. "And, if you ever want to go out on your own, then my sister wants to meet Alan and my brother wanted to know if Charlie could come around sometime."_

"_I'm sure Charlie and Alan would love to visit." Teresa wondered why they were doing what they were doing. It wasn't like they'd been close friends at school._

"_TESS!" She turned at the yell. It was Charlie. She turned at ran to where the shout had come from._

_She looked at what Charlie was looking at. Lucien Lisbon was flat out on the floor._

"_He's not breathing, Tess!" Charlie cried._

"_Stay here." She ordered him, and ran past Alisha and Lana to use Janet's phone._

_Alisha walked into the house. She was amazed at how spotless it was. Barely furnished, but it was clean and tidy. She stopped when she saw Lucien. "Oh my god. Charlie, Alan. Come here."_

_Lana helped calm down Charlie, and Alisha kept Alan talking until the ambulance arrived and Lucien Lisbon was taken away to the hospital. Teresa leant against the wall, and slid down it until she was sitting on the ground. Alisha sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulder._

"_He'll be okay." Alisha assured her. "He'll be fine."_

"_No. He won't. Not this time." Teresa shook her head, trying not to cry. "I'm sorry you had to see that."_

"_Don't worry. Do you want a lift to the hospital?" Alisha asked, gesturing to a small car that was parked on the curb._

"_Thanks." Teresa stood up. Teresa rode shot gun, while Lana sat in the back, talking to Charlie and Alex, trying to take their minds off the situation. When they arrived, Teresa ran in to the hospital and up to the receptionist. _

"_I'm looking for Lucien Lisbon." She told the receptionist. It was the same receptionist who she had told that she'd been looking for Alan a few months earlier._

"_Doctor Daniels would like to speak to you, miss." The receptionist told her. "If you could wait in the waiting room?"_

_Teresa turned and headed back to the room where the atmosphere was full of worry._

_She waited nervously for half an hour until a doctor called her name out. "Miss Lisbon?"_

_She stood up and walked over to him._

"_Yes?" She asked anxiously. _

"_I'm afraid that Mr Lisbon passed away, there was nothing we could do." Charlie and Alan were crying, but for some reason tears just didn't come to Teresa's eyes. Maybe it was because she'd expected that to happen. "Miss Lisbon, can I speak to you alone?"_

_She followed Doctor Daniels into his office._

"_Miss Lisbon, did your father have an alcohol problem?" Doctor Daniels asked as soon as she'd sat down. He leaned forward, his elbows on his desk._

"…_yes." Teresa told him._

"_Did you do anything about this?" The doctor asked her. She stared down at her hands which were in her lap._

"_I tried to stop him. I took away all alcohol. It didn't do anything." Teresa wouldn't meet Doctor Daniels' eyes._

"_Thank you, Miss Lisbon." Doctor Daniels stood up and shook her hand. "I'm sorry for your loss."_

Three weeks later, Teresa, Charlie and Alan were in court. Teresa was challenging social services. They thought that it would be better for Charlie and Alan, eleven and fourteen, to be placed in a children's home. Northern Nevada Children's home, to be exact.

Teresa's lawyer was representing her wish for Charlie and Alan to live with her in California, where she was moving to work.

"_The court has come to a decision." The judge said, and Teresa clutched her hands together. "Charlie Lisbon and Alan Lisbon are to be housed in the Northern Nevada Children's home. Court adjourned."_

_Teresa stood up suddenly and she couldn't stop the tears from falling. She ran over and pulled both of her brothers into a huge hug. They were both crying too, knowing that they wouldn't see their sister often at all._

_She pulled back and watched as the woman from social services walked Charlie and Alan out from the court room._

"_I'm sorry." Her lawyer patted her back gently before leaving the courtroom._

_Teresa Lisbon walked out of the courtroom and onto the busy street. _

Two days later, she walked out into the bright Californian sunshine.

"_Teresa Lisbon?" She looked around and saw a man about ten years older than her._

"_Yes?" She asked, and he smiled at her._

"_Virgil Minelli." He proffered his hand for her to shake. "The boss sent me to collect you. I warn you, he's not in the best of moods right now, our lead suspect just turned up dead."_

"_That sucks," Teresa said, and Virgil chuckled._

"_Too right," He led her over to a black Chevrolet Suburban, and thirty minutes later they pulled up outside a building he addressed as the 'CBI HQ.'_

_He spoke to the parking attendant, and Teresa was given an identity badge, with her name on it._

"_You'll get a proper one with a photo once you've done your training." Virgil said, as he parked his car. They walked towards the building, and headed upstairs. "I work in the Serious Crimes Unit. You don't have a weak stomach do you?"_

"_No," Teresa answered, and Virgil grinned._

"_That's lucky. The last person we had moved from the Petty Crimes Unit to the SCU and puked at their first crime scene. Needless to say, they soon returned back to the Petty Crimes." Teresa smirked, and Virgil knocked on an office door._

"_Come in." Virgil pushed open the door._

"_Boss, this is Teresa Lisbon. Lisbon, this Jonathan Ryan. Your boss." Teresa leaned forward and shook Jonathan Ryan's hand._

"_Thank you for giving me this opportunity, sir." She said, and he smiled at her. _

"_It's good to have you on the team. Minelli will show you the ropes and we've organized you sessions for training each week. In ten minutes you've got a session on the shooting range." Teresa raised her eyebrows._

"_That should be… interesting." Minelli and Ryan chuckled._

"_You'll be fine. Minelli, don't tell her too many scary stories about us, okay?" Minelli grinned._

"_Sure thing, boss."_

Three weeks later, and Teresa was settling into the SCU. She didn't realize just how intriguing fighting crime could be. Not only that, but she appeared to be quite a natural. Minelli had watched on with pride as she noticed a major clue that no one else noticed which led to taking down a killer just last week. Literally taking down. Like, flying tackle taking down.

She'd run after the suspect when he'd bolted and they'd seen a flash of green and the next thing they knew Teresa Lisbon, or rather **Agent Lisbon** and Lance Archer were on the ground, and Teresa was cuffing Lance's hands behind his back.

"Is it wrong to say that that turned me on?" One of the other agents on the team, Agent James Sanders, was a total player, and they all knew it. The addition of a gorgeous female agent to the team was his idea of heaven. Until that said gorgeous female agent kneed him in the balls for his comments.

She still missed her brothers desperately, but that was to be expected. At least now she was learning to live life on her own terms, rather than existing to care for her family. But still, without fail, every week she sent them each £10 from her wages.

She knew she'd always be grateful for Alicia and Lana linking her to Minelli and the CBI. And maybe one day, she'd get to thank them.

_**

* * *

A/N: Jeez that was a long chapter! I hope I didn't bore you! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!**_


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